Where have all the MPs gone?

2003-04-24 21:55

Cape Town - The secretary to parliament's office has ordered an urgent inquiry into suspected fraudulent use of the travel facilities provided to members of parliament.

Early inquiries revealed that parliament may have been defrauded of thousands of rands, a statement by Sindiso Mfenyana's office said on Thursday.

The allegations pointed to the defrauding of parliament through issuing invoices for travel tickets for routes that members did not travel.

"At this time, it appears the fraudulent activity was by (travel) agency staff and not by members of parliament." The initial findings had been reported to the presiding officers who had directed the acting secretary to parliament to provide a full report on the allegations and findings by May 2.

Payment to travel agencies referred to in the allegations had been stopped until the investigation was concluded, the statement said.

On Thursday morning, the Cape Times newspaper reported that the possible abuse of travel vouchers by some members of parliament was being investigated.

It said the vouchers included airline tickets, car rentals and luxury holiday accommodation.

The alleged scam was believed to total about R750 000.

A former female employee at a Cape Town travel agency was believed to have "orchestrated" the alleged operation, which saw MPs cash in on the travel vouchers they received each year to do their parliamentary duties.

The newspaper said it had a list of 13 MPs, including one party leader, who reportedly benefited from the alleged scam, which, according to one source, "was spread by word of mouth".

It was understood that details of the operation were uncovered by the travel agency's auditors about three weeks ago, the report said.

- SAPA